Percentage of Christian faithful attending Sunday church services in Ilorin, Kwara State, has, in the last six months, dropped by about 40 per cent.

Checks by The Guardian around notable orthodox and unorthodox churches in the town showed that 40 per cent of the available seats in the worship centres were always vacant during Sunday services.

The situation is worse during weekly services as it dropped to just 10 to 15 per cent. Besides, the car parks were scanty, while the traffic wardens, mostly trained by the churches for such endeavours, had little or nothing to do at such periods.

For instance, at Ibrahim Taiwo Isale end of the town, which used to be a beehive of activities, with vehicles moving almost at snail speed during services, the gridlock has drastically reduced. Catholic, Methodist and Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) churches along the route no longer record capacity filled attendance.

Commercial tricycle and motorcycle riders are groaning for lack of patronage, thus giving many of them on hire purchase arrangement great concern.

Reacting to the development, former Secretary, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kwara chapter, Dr Olusola Ajolore, blamed it on the economic downturn, worsened by the astronomical increment in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

Besides, Ajolore said the advent of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), which led to the introduction of virtual meetings gave many Nigerians varying options to attend church services.

“Today, we have church services on air. People pay their tithes and offerings online. It saves them time and the high cost of transportation. All these alternatives may be the greatest factors responsible for the low turnout of people for church services,” he said.

He, however, warned that God would always prefer the physical gatherings of believers to any virtual gathering, especially to engender quality praise and worship to Him.

For Rev Cornelius Fawenu, who succeeded Ajolore as the local scribe of CAN, worshippers, at present, prefer church locations closer to their homes for services.

“They prefer to trek to and from church. This helps them to preserve money and enhance their comfort serving God,” Fawenu said. To increase church attendance, some churches now make available free buses to convey members to and from their areas. Besides, they provide free feeding on fixed Sundays for their members after church services. (The Guardian)

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